Forth!

The Verve is back. Maybe not better than ever, but still apparently pretty good, and you can’t make Urban Hymns every time, can you? Whatever this new record does, it will never — nor can anything else — resolve the essential conflict between those who rank Hymns first and those who think A Northern Soul was The Verve’s creative peak. It’s a generational thing. (Hipsters have no use for ANS. No, not because they wouldn’t recognize a soul if it hit them in the face. Jeez!)